Fire Emblem Engage Review – Masterful Tactics, Mediocre Story

The Divine Dragon Awakens

Fire Emblem Engage is the latest mainline title in the long-running strategy franchise from Nintendo.  After the critical and commercial success of its predecessor, Fire Emblem : Three Houses, the direction of Engage is like a shock to the system.  While the previous game is an exploration of revisionist history, political turmoil, and overcoming trauma, Engage hearkens back to a simpler-story.  Much like recent nostalgia-driven forms of entertainment, previous main characters from throughout the series join the fray.  While this results in a story that is certainly a step down from Three Houses, its clear the focus is one the core game play Fire Emblem is known for.

Engage in Strategic Battles

Courtesy of Nintendo/Intelligent Systems

The Engage mechanic is the defining feature of this latest Fire Emblem entry.  Utilizing rings containing the spirits of previous Fire Emblem characters, the player gains access to a variety of game changing abilities.  While this may make them seem broken, a variety of other game play innovations keep them in check.  One of which being the returning weapon triangle.  While previous games gave units with a weapon advantage better accuracy against foes, Engage changes this up in a far more prominent way.  Weapon advantage allows units to inflict the break status upon the enemy, preventing them from counterattacking through the next combat encounter.

Aside from the reworked and newly introduced mechanics, the area Engage undoubtedly improves upon from its predecessor is the map design.  While Three Houses has largely forgettable maps, many of which are visually similar, Engage features far more layouts, visuals, and side-objectives throughout.  Even early on, the more intricate maps allow for far more challenging game play and… ahem… engaging battles.  Simply put, Engage’s core game play is among the series best, and a vast improvement of Three Houses.

Fixing Garreg Mach Monastery

Courtesy of Nintendo/Intelligent Systems

Fire Emblem : Three Houses includes a free roaming feature set at a giant monastery.  This feature essentially introduces social sim aspects to the game, allowing the player to interact with their character roster in ways other games were unable to.  This feature is fun for a time, but as the game goes on, it becomes more of a drag.  It overall kills the pace of the game, and intrudes a lot on what is supposed to be a tactical-RPG.

From a game play perspective, Engage’s Somniel fixes all of that.  Removing the teaching feature which over-complicated unit progression, and leaving the base as an optional feature, Engage’s Somniel is what the Monastery should have been.  The Somniel is entirely optional, now acting as a break area filled with various mini-games that can give small boosts for the next battle.  From a social sim perspective, it falters though.  This isn’t due to anything game play wise, however.  No, rather it ties into perhaps the biggest issue Fire Emblem Engage has, the writing.

While Game Play Flies High, Story Falls Short

While the trailers of Fire Emblem Engage made it clear that the story wouldn’t be the main focus, it’s still surprising to see just how simple the story has been made.  Unlike some of the Fire Emblem narrative highlights such as Path of Radiance, Genealogy of the Holy War, or Three Houses, Engage instead opts for the more traditional Fire Emblem stories.  Still, what often makes those simpler stories effective are the cast of memorable characters.  Unfortunately, this too is an area Engage surprisingly falls short of.

Despite the colorful, vivid designs, many of these characters are remarkably one note.  That’s not to say unlikable, and there are characters that are highlights; some stand outs include Ivy, Diamant, Chloe.  Still, a few stand outs isn’t enough to make this game something easy to remember.  Even the returning characters from previous games are a mixed bag.  While some characters don’t leave much of an impact, others such as Sigurd and Marth manage to work well as solid supporting characters.

It’s partly why, despite staying enthralled from game play alone, the story really hampers this game.  No amount of light-hearted, self aware humor can distract from how uninteresting many of these characters are.  It’s why, despite the Somniel working better from a game play perspective, it’s not as interesting an experience as the Monastery.

An Unexpected Highlight

Courtesy of Nintendo/Intelligent Systems

Strangely the main character, Alear, is one of the better characters in the game.  Typically, Avatar characters have had a mixed bag.  Corrin was poorly written and had no arc or interesting personality.  Byleth, by design, has no interesting personality.  While this works for the lore of Three Houses, it creates a disconnect with the player.  Alear meanwhile has a defined arc and personality, as she learns to find the strength within herself, and become the hero so many see her as.  While she’s nowhere near the best character in the series, it’s still appreciated they tried to make her an interesting character in her own right.

Overall Thoughts – Fire Emblem Stays Strong

Upon its release, Fire Emblem Engage is now among the most divisive games in the series among Fire Emblem fans.  Many fans who came in with Three Houses are expressing disappointment.  This is due to the game seemingly abandoning what made them love that game so much.  Long time fans meanwhile are more willing to accept this game. It’s because this game goes back to the core game play values of Fire Emblem, despite the less than stellar story.

What it really comes down to is this, Fire Emblem Engage is the more fun game to play.  However, Fire Emblem : Three Houses is the more interesting game to experience.  While Engage is more concerned with making a fun, cartoony, tactical experience, Three Houses is more concerned with making you care about the grand, epic world and complex characters that have been lovingly crafts.  Both are ultimately equal in quality, but for different reasons.  While ideally, Fire Emblem Engage should’ve had a more interesting story on top of the amazing game play, the same could be said of Three Houses needing better game play on top of the amazing story.

Ultimately, it comes down to preference, but as it stands, Fire Emblem Engage is an excellent game that celebrates the series history, even if the story and characters are mediocre.

FINAL RATING 8/10.

To see how Fire Emblem Engage compares to other titles in the series, check out the series ranking here.